Monday, April 22, 2013

I actually finished the table runner that I pieced at my retreat. I really had problems quilting it, for a couple of reasons. The first one was that I knew that I wanted to do grid quilting in the squares and I thought that I would sew around the inner border to stabilize it before beginning the grid quilting. However, then I decided to use a decorative stitch in the inner border figuring that would work instead of a straight stitch in the ditch. Wrong! The fabric shifted slightly downward while I was stitching even though I had it pin basted. I believe that the other reason that happened is because I was using my sewing machine on a different table then I usually do and there was not a flat surface in front of my needle. The front of my machine curves downward in the front and my runner kept pulling down along with it. I usually use a large sewing table that is flush with my machine not only with the side and back, but also the front.

After I did the inner border, even though it was pulled off some, I decided to do the grid quilting. Now instead of straight stitches, I decided to experiment with a serpentine stitch. I wanted soft curves to accentuate the florals of my patches. That didn't go too bad, but I definitely wound up with that extra fullness towards the one end because of my first stitching incident.

Now my center was stitched and my poor borders just waved at me! Oh my! What could I do to tame them?! I decide to do more decorative stitches. A row close to the inner border and a row close to the outside edge of the border. After I finished stitching, I actually hoped very much that this table runner would shrink when I washed it so that it would pucker up and take up some slack. Guess what! IT WORKED!

All in all it came out half decent despite my issues. I am happy with it and it brightens up my room and makes me happy!

The moral of this story is never give up! Maybe things really do quilt out! :-)

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Bonnie Hunter from www.quiltville.comwas here! I am still so excited! For those of you that follow my blog, you know that I am a huge fan of Bonnie. You can check out an earlier post here. I have all of her books and have saved many, many of her free patterns from her website on my computer. We share a huge love of scrappy quilts. She convinced me that I can mix batiks and reproductions or whatever I want and it will turn out wonderful!

We had to share with Bonnie some of the quilts that we have made from her patterns. You can see more of mine in the post link that I put in the beginning of this post.

Bonnie shares so much with quilters everywhere. Please support her. She is a wonderful person, very down to earth and just feels like you are talking to a friend. If you ever get a chance to hear her lecture or take a class, do it! You won't believe how much fun you had!